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Species traits of soil fauna and ecosystem functions during recovery after major disturbances
Salazar Fillippo, Andres Alberto ; Frouz, Jan (advisor) ; Tajovský, Karel (referee) ; Józefowska, Agnieszka (referee)
Growing evidence indicates that interactions between above and belowground communities are essential for healthy and functioning ecosystems. This, however, has exposed a disproportionate knowledge gap in soil communities, which remain poorly understood both at a taxonomic and ecological level when compared to their aboveground counterpart. Studying assembly processes of communities along with structuring forces driving these changes facilitate observing key dynamics within the ecosystem. For this reason, three out of four manuscripts included in the current thesis focus on chronosequences in different successional stages after restoration of major disturbances. The first chronosequence consisted of four sites (10 years, 30 years, 50 years, and a >100 years reference site) in heathlands restored using top-soil removal from North- East Belgium. Here I studied trait assemblages of oribatid mite communities that revealed different ecomorphological groups changing with time during succession, and we also quantitatively assessed the contribution of phoresy via rodents to the dispersal of oribatid mites between restored sites. In the second chronosequence on spoil heaps from the mining district of Sokolov (Czech Republic) with sites ranging from 1 to 41 years, I identified explicit relationships between...
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